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Analysis:

A popular video on Facebook that garnered millions of views warns users that the typical “Copy and Paste” Facebook status updates are leaving users unwittingly vulnerable to hackers who want to hack into their social media accounts. Although the man heard in the video explains to suggest posting ‘copy and paste’ updates on Facebook is one of the reasons why users’ accounts are being hacked or cloned, it is not a fact.

The video in question was posted in early February 2017 by Facebook user Antony Newby (video deleted later), who happens to be a fitness marketer. The video tries to show that posting the typical ‘copy and paste’ sensitive messages (like for showing care and concern to people who die of cancer) is one of the reasons why many Facebook accounts are being hacked/cloned. It is said that hackers can easily access your profile, get your details and hack into your account in that case. As an example, it is shown that searching for the ‘copy and paste message’ in Facebook’s search box shows the results of everyone around the world posting the status update. This way it is said that hackers can know who is doing and willing to do such copy paste job, and that they shall be vulnerable, for hackers can find information to access their account.

The claim aside, there’s no evidence that such incidents have happened. Copying and pasting a Facebook status update cannot give hackers the access to a user’s account; they need to have the user’s login credentials. Moreover, the popular social networking platform Facebook has security features to prevent any such hack of a user account seen in Facebook search results. Notably, Facebook account cloning mentioned in the message is different from hacking or unauthorized access. Cloning is when scammers steal pictures and other information of a user and create a fake Facebook profile for misuse or cheating.

So the claim that the ‘Copy and Paste’ Facebook status updates are leaving user accounts vulnerable to hackers is a hoax.